Asus Chromebooks reportedly set to launch by end of year

Asus plans to enter the Chromebook market by the end of 2013 in an attempt to hook more consumers and boost its shipment numbers for notebooks, according to a new report.

Digitimes reported on Thursday that Asus wants to nab consumers in the education industry, specifically. Upon experiencing a drop in notebook demand in Q3, Asus has begun looking at other options. The third quarter typically sees a back-to-school spike for manufacturers, but Asus fell from 22 to 24 million units to 17 to 19 million for the quarter in 2013.

Digitimes doesn't have the best track record. That said, the website originally reported in April that both Asus and Acer were considering Chromebooks for Q3 and Q4. Jim Wong, Acer's president, told investors earlier this month during a conference call that the company had indeed decided to pull back focus on Microsoft-based products in order to expand on Chromebook and Android-based products instead.

Asus was more hesitant to embrace Chromebooks, but the company is apparently now more eager after seeing its notebook shipments drop. However, Chromebooks as a whole still suffer from weak demand. So, if the news is true, it'll be interesting to see whether Asus finds more success with Chromebooks.

There are no additional details at this time - including whether the company will launch just one Chromebook model or a few. Chromebooks are simply PCs running Google's Chrome OS. The first Chromebooks for sale - by Acer and Samsung - launched at Google I/O in May 2011 and began shipping a few weeks later.